Anambra Poll: INEC declares election ‘inconclusive’

The Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC, has declared Saturday’s gubernatorial election in Anambra State inconclusive.
Announcing the decision to journalists and election monitors, on Monday, James Epoke, Returning Officer and Vice-Chancellor of the University of Calabar, said that a supplementary election would be conducted at a yet-to-be-fixed date.
The election was declared inconclusive because no candidate polled the statutory 25 percent of votes in two-third of the 21 local government areas in the state, according to Prof. Epoke.
“For a candidate to emerge as the winner, he must have scored not only the highest number of votes cast, but should also garner 25 per cent in two-third of the local government areas in the state,” Prof. Epoke said.
The commission stated that due to the large number of cancelled votes, 113,113, no candidate scored the required percentage.
Also, the commission examined the difference between the total votes of Willie Obiano, the APGA candidate, who polled the highest number of votes and Tony Nwoye, the PDP aspirant, who was the first runner-up.
The difference is less than the figure of the cancelled votes. According to INEC, Mr. Obiano got 174,710 to finish tops, Mr. Nwoye polled 94,956.
According to INEC, out of the 1,763,751 voters registered for the election, only 451,826 were accredited.
Total valid votes stood at 413,005, while the invalid ones were 16,544. Total votes cast was 429,549, INEC said.
Idemili North had 89,997 cancelled votes, while 636 were cancelled from Idemili South.
The All Progressives Congress (APC) finished second runner-up with 92,300 votes, while Labour Party (LP) polled 37,446 votes.
23 candidates participated in the election.
The APGA won in 16 of the 21 local government areas; PDP won in two, APC won in two, while LP won one.
A date for the supplementary election will be fixed after the commission must have met, Prof. Epoka announced.
“The commission will arrange a supplementary election in those areas where election was cancelled,” he added.